Wednesday, December 19, 2012

1982 Family Letter - Dec. 19

The last family letter from 1982 as HH and Jean are about to head west in the Salisbury's RV. Transcription follows.

Sunday, December 19, 1982

Dear Family:

Sunday School and Church were special today with "skits" in both services. Frank Young says he is retiring as Santa.

We were in Columbus two nights this week for the Ohio County Com. meetings, with Serena meeting us on Tuesday and then we three met X and John for supper at a Mexican restaurant. The Ohio Extension Office always gives each Commissioner a "goody bag" with food products from different parts of Ohio, such as cheese, cookies, nuts, corn chips, apples, syrup and other tidbits.

On Friday afternoon six of were sworn in by the Ohio Chief Justice in the Clinton County Court Room for our new terms. Had an overflow crowd, complete with TV and press coverage. Always amazed the government runs as well as it does.

Friday evening was the annual Christmas party for the Hospital Board and their guests ... at a Cincinnati restaurant called "John Q" ... what a feast. It is rather ironic when so many people are lacking for the basics of living. Our church has been receiving contributions for food baskets, etc. for the needy for the Holidays.

Saturday morning we went to Salisburys to get the Winnebago and "last minute" instructions. We talked of sleeping in it last night, but decided to enjoy the luxury of our home for another night. Because of the cold weather we are not putting any water into the tanks for we would hate for freezing weather to burst the pipes. The RV has so many "gadgets" that we do wonder about our capability in being a quasi-engineer. Yes, we are looking forward to the experience.

We plan to leave tomorrow afternoon after taking care of some details at the Courthouse and at Wells. Spring business is slowly coming in, which is good when one considers the general economic conditions. There was an article in Friday's WSJ that 8937 retail store had gone out of business in the first 11 months of 1982 – a 40% increase over 1981.

The Church Christmas caroling group has just been here ... it was for all those that were "young at heart." They did have a large truck load of participants. Our Church is also going to have a 11 P.M. Christmas Eve service.

[Much love, etc.]* * * * *HH adds in 2012: Catherine, that trip to AZ in the Winnebago was indeed an experience and we saw many gas stations. Peaches was always a good sport in handling challenges like that trip and travelling with four children for five weeks, as I recall, in 1962.